January 04, 2007

Saddam's Media Makeover

Last
Saturday, December 30, I took to the radio waves to discuss, among
other things, the execution of Saddam Hussein, which had literally just
happened hours before. There was a general sense of relief and
jubiliation in the streets of Baghdad, and although there were two car
bombings reported that day, the violence was much less than had been
anticipated. I reported, as did so many others that day, that Saddam's
execution was good riddance to bad rubbish. We were already talking
about the effect it might have on the healing and reconciliation
process in Iraq.

Fast forward 24 to 48 hours. The American media---indeed, the Western
world's media---got ahold of a cell phone video of Saddam's hanging and
promptly turned a bookend of an event into a new cause celebre.
"Saddam was taunted," they said. "The Shiites mocked him." "They hung
him on Eid." "This has sparked more sectarian wariness and violence."

Actually, no. In the first 24 hours after his hanging, Iraqis were
pretty OK with it. It was us---our media, our pundits, who want so
desperately for the US intervention in Iraq to fail---who decided to
turn the hanging into a PR nightmare for the United States. "WE were
at fault," they argued. "How could this have happened?" "Is THIS
what we've been fighting for?" Once some of our enemies got wind of
our handwringing and bellyaching, they ran with it. And who can blame
them? If we hand them the ammunition, they are going to use it.

Getting lost in all of this strum und drang is the simple fact that
this mass murderer deserved to be mocked, deserved to be taunted, and
deserved to be hanged. It's about time we started seeing our enemies
as they are, not as we wish them to be. And to stop making apologies
for our decision to fight them.

Monica, you are so correct. I even heard the MSM say we should have felt a bit of sympathy for the Butcher of Baghdad whom they felt had expressed a bit of humanity as the rope was put around his neck. Will this same American MSM feel the same way if Osama is killed or captured, tried and hanged? The liberals are desperate to see Bush and the military fail miserably, but that is not going to happen. That is why I so believe this MSM constantly reminding us of Bush's poll numbers being so low is truly a crock of manure. If Bush is so hated by this nation, where are the demonstrations in the millions calling for his removal? The American people understand what is going on, and won't fall for the liberal shenanigans.

Monica, what we need are more commercials from the Kurds and other Iraqis who truly support our mission and thank Bush adn the American people for their sacrifices for saving them from Hussein's butchery. Saddam himself was a WMD for he possessed the power to annihilate groups of people as Hitler did 70 years ago. He attempted to annihilate the Kurds and the Shias. Isn't that enough to convince a minority of Americans that Bush did the right thing?

Saddam Hussein, the Butcher of Baghdad, and the gasser of the Kurds, got off very lightly with a few Shi'ite taunts. All the leftist wring handing critics ought to thank the US Military for not allowing Hussein to be put into Iraqi custody until right before the execution. I wasn't around in 1963, but look up what they did to Iraq's former dictator of the time, Abdul Karim Qasim. When he was overthrown, they mutilated his corpse, dragged it through the streets of Baghdad, and even put the body in a chair in order to appear that he was being questioned by his killers. And previously, it was Qasim who overthrew the Hashemite monarchy and had the monarch and his family butchered.

Saddam Hussein was very lucky. He was the first Iraqi "leader" not to have his corpse desecrated. That says alot about America, and for that matter, his executors.

The irony in this is that Saddam Hussein was captured by our special-ops guys in his spider-hole with a loaded handgun. He wasn't about to kill himself, and wouldn't fight to the death. Therefore, he had faith that U.S. soldiers would not torture or kill him, and that he would have his day(s) in court. The "Death to America!" crowd always demand their rights!

Bloggers, I know you will hate me but I am just a little old retired school teacher and grandmother obsessed with *&^%(%$# for George Bush. I include a copy of an email I just sent to Monica who I think is terrific on TV, especially for Imus but with whom I totally diagree...

Monica, how pathetic today that you blamed American, European, and Arab media reaction to Saddam's hanging as the only cause for the violence that occured in Iraq a few days after the event.

As if Iraqis are taking their cues from American media only!

Last week you were waxing poetic about the likelihood of Americans of Iraqi descent returning now to Iraq to share their vision of the American way now that Saddam is gone. How delusional! No one can walk the streets of Baghdad without fear, much less American ex-pats.

When will you admit to yourself that this adventure of choice in Iraq is the BIGGEST, STRATEGIC blunder ever made in American history? And yet your show continues to be a three hour long apologia for this disaster of choice. And now Bush, led by neocons extraordinaire from AEI and the Weekly Standard, will send more Americans into the "neighborhoods" of Baghdad to secure the piece.

I continue to listen to Rush, Fox, and yourself in constant amazement at the naivite, delusion, or blind support for the "commander-in-chief," who never served, has read little, confers only with those who agree, never traveled much before his ascendency to the White House, and follows "gut" instinct and the voice of his Heavenly Father....

All I could think of when watching the ceremonies of the Ford funeral with the stirring oratory, pageantry, and beautiful music was..... "Bush, what have you done to this country???"

Dear Wellstone, why should America and the West worry about creating martyr like Saddam, et al when we kill them? If that's the case, why should America ever have to defend herself against a vicious enemy when the same can be said about creating martyrs out of the enemy? We might as well give up, and allow the enemies of America to kill evey American, including you. Should we not kill Osama for fear of creating a martyr out of him?

I'm interested in what you said in your second to last paragraph, Helen, and wonder where have you been all this time. Let me inform you that President Bush did serve in the military as a pilot in the Texas Air National Guard in the late 1960s until the mid-1970s. He is also an avid reader of history books, and he does seek broad opinions. You would rarely hear this from the liberal mainstream media, but what I've laid out are facts.

You wrote he never traveled much? I assume you mean to Europe, Asia, Africa, South American and Australia, am I correct? Does travel within the US count for anything which I'm quite sure Bush has done extensively. Does that not count? Let me inform you, again, that many US presidents never traveled abroad. You can find who they are by doing a little research.

Lastly, in answer to your question, "Bush, what have you done to this country?" I say, a hell of a lot of good given the attack on our soil, and his commitment to keeping this country safe by any means necessary as prescribed Article 2.

Step back a little, avoid the liberal press, and open your eyes much wider. Don't let the Democrat scare tactics get the better of you.

After listening to the first half hour of this week's MC program, I'm thinking to myself, are there actually listeners out there buying into this mega-spin garbage? If I'm to understand Monica correctly, the Iraqi people are too stupid to think for themselves.. they must look to the American media for guidance, as they needed to do in order to understand how to feel about the execution of Saddam Hussein. (No, it doesn't have anything to do with the differences between Sunni and Shiite, stupid). I guess that's consistent though with the conservative view that if you can spoon feed the American people, as was attempted with WMD, you can spoon feed the Iraqis too.

If was Iraqi I would be truly be offended by such a condescending view of Iraq and its people.

Monica, you seem to have what is either a woeful or willful ignorance of the deep and possibly intractable religious divisions that have become the overwhelmingly predominant dynamic in the Civil war now raging in Iraq. Especially for someone who was correctly (and somewhat derisively) critical of incoming Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Silvestre Reyes for not knowing the difference between a Shi'ite or Sunni Muslim. It was NOT, as you ludicrously assert, the media coverage that is causing further violence in Iraq following the thoroughly botched execution of Saddam Hussein, it is the sad fact that the Iraqi "government" is controlled primarily by factions who do not pledge their allegiance to an Iraqi Republic, but instead vow fealty to the radical Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Al-Sadr is closely allied with Iran, as is Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who lived in Syria and Iran for 22 years prior to his return to Iraq after Hussein was deposed, and who is the deputy leader of the Islamic Dawa Party, a terrorist organization. The criticism of how the execution was handled is quite valid, considering that the black masked men who carried it out were clearly heard chanting "Muqtada, Muqtada" on the unauthorized cell phone video. Tell me Monica, exactly how in control is a government that is unable to prevent imagery of the execution to be recorded and disseminated? Or perhaps that is precisely what was intended, knowing full well how inflammatory it would be. Most unfortunately, far from being an example of Justice, the rushed and badly managed execution was a stark and ominous symbol of sectarian vengeance, and a harbinger of the ensuing violence and chaos which has become endemic of Iraq. The only thing the news media is guilty of here is reporting the facts; it borders on the delusional to believe otherwise, and shooting (or hanging) the messenger will not change them.